THE TRUTH ABOUT GERMAN SCIENCE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 247, 6 July 1918, Page 2

THE TRUTH ABOUT GERMAN SCIENCE

INTERESTING COMPARISONS

PRUSSIAN EDUCATION

fßy EEAPim.I

! Is German science rcnlly preponderant? I Has Uormany a scientific primacy either in the past or the contemporary history oi the sconces?* .Such Comparisons are hard to make. What scales can fairly weigh together a Leibnitz and a Descartes, a Bradley and a Bossel, a Laplace and a Gauss? Tiio importance, of tho p.irt played in the history of science by any country depends on a small number of men of genius; and, as genius is sporadic, spread hero and there, generally irdependent of its environment, and having no common measure, one sees at once tho groat dilliculty of comparisons. However, it results from a series of conscientious studies in this connection that tho role of Germany in modern science is.fnr from being of superior importance. Kepler, Gauss, Kerchoff, Hertz, Helmsbbltz, Koch wore Germans; Descartes, Laplace, Lavoisier, Camot, Ampere, Claude Bernard, Pasteur wero French; Newton, Davy, Maxwell, Faraday, Lister, Kelvin, were English. All wero irreat mon of science ; but it has been fitly remarked that tierj many's great scientists have been distinguished chiefly for thoir minutiae, their nicety of detail, and their tenacity, while those of France and England aro valued for the leading ideas they have contributed. If the strongest German brains have lacked tho highest flights of scientific genius, they havo had, in comparison, certain qualities which supply somewhat tho place of genius. Genius, said Bufion, is but long patience. He was wrong in saying so, and hia own genius gainsays such a definition. Genius is not pntionce alone, but patience is one of its forms, and one in which the Germans are richly endowed. Their erudition is meticulous, untiring, ransacking; their labour tenacious, groping and without respito. They have a genius for. compiling; and hence they havo flooded the world with their repertoires, their annuals, their manuals, their bibliographies, their guides, their histories of all sorts. And this fact has had vow much to do with spreading abroad the belief in the pretended superiority of German science. Germany has no primacy in modern science, and if wo go back through history, wo find her decidedly inferior to either Franco or England. Germany's Debt to France. It would, of courso, be childish to think that German minds are ill-suited .for the pursuit of sciences; but what is incontestable is that the Germans came into civilisation much later than the Latin nations, and their contributions to •civilisation have been moro recent, find "af'fifst loss rich. It was only in the eixteonth century that tho sciences and arts, already spread through franco, reached through her and by her German comparative barbarism. Even in the eighteenth century German scienco was no poor that Frederick the Great of Prussia, by no means tho dullest of the Hohenzollerns, was obliged to recruit in France tho staff of the Academy of Sciences founded in Berlin, and having for its first president tho Frenchman Maupertius. It is hardly more than a century and a kail—very little in the history of a pcoplo, especially of tho people claiming to bo the chosen of tho Deity— when Germany had no pretonco whatever to a supoi or culture, and was glad to sit bohind tho rider of tho French Pegasus. And so in any order of ideas connected with tho culture of the. mind. It was from tho philosophy of the Frenchman Descartes that rose the systems of Leibnite, Spinosa, Mnlbranciie, and Locke, and German idealism. It was Frenchmen viho founded and j.racUsed all tho profound sciences: linguistics, grammar, archaeology, paleography, epigraphy, etc., not fo mention many otliers. Why, even tho German beer, deemed and vaunted (ho most Genuau of Gorman, products, is manufactured everywhere in Germany with;- the processes discovered by the Frenchman Pasteur. If, then, there, js'i'a German science that, has produced anything of great value, it is because a French scienco wont before it. What right, therofore, havo tho Germans, and especially thoir mentors tho Prussians, to asBumo the possession of all superiority and particularly (Scientific , supremacy? Simply tho right-of the strongest. For those' pretentions came from Prussia only after the \ictory of IS6G. The Superman, Pitching out Austria, Prussia, made Germany to'her own image and likeness, set up her brutal discipline, imposed her own. greed of material conquests, and' perverted German mentality, with tho avowed purpose of establishing her domination. To this end sho employed primary and higher education, philosophers, proaohers, historians, religious and materialistic writers, science and literature. The belisf of Germans in their supennauhood is a species' of megalomania brought about deliberately by a special education; Germany made supermen as Africa makes spinning dervishes and circusmen dancing- ponies. Nor does the Prussian State make any mystery of this purposo. Thus Haugurlz, the organiser of Prussian education, says .uublusliingly: "Wo teach'what cun bo useful to us, no matter whether it bo truo or false; we want Germany to believe wnat we think she ought, to lxdicvo to carry out oui purpose." Could anything be moro cynical? Clover Advertising. And, indeed, the history of civilisation as taught in Prussian school books, not to speak of other branches, is manufactured in accordance with that principle. All its contents are "made in, Germany." You will find, for instance, German works on the history of chemistry, in which the name of Lavoisier is not even mentioned; German books on photography lacking mention of either Niepce f.r Daguerre. Hardly aro the names. J Claude Bernard, Pasteur, Chain poltiun, Burnouf, Lamarch, Saint Hilaire, Cuvier, Laplace, cited in her history of the sciences. If the. Germans omit to. mention the labours ' of others, or attribute t'liora fo themselves, it is not through ignorance, for their documentation is aliko meticulous and indefatigable, but ou system. In short, the German people have been inoculated in the belief of their superiority (in order that it may be used as a lever) by tho same menus of propaganda employed to advertise pills or patent medicines or elixirs. To put the matter in a nutshell, tho present war is but the result, of clever advertising. Avowals like the aforesaid ona oi llaugartz arc common enough. Tho very same author candidly stales that he does not himself believe in German superiority, but that he tenches it to exalt "German pride." Other Germans do not believe it either. Goethe wrote after 1813: "The l'r».ic!> sre our masters in civilisation, and we havo much to learn from them; personally I owe them much." Even according fo Nietzsche, the bard and prophet of the superman, the German needs some centuries of social fermentation. Tho present German power arises from the fact that they havo admirably known how to avail themselves of any profit by the progresses of their neighbours. Trained to Crimo, And now, we ask, when wo remember that science is by definition the search after and tho cultus of truth, can anything bo more remote, from science, anything more anti-scientific, more unscientific, than the monstrous doctrines by which a whole people Ims been trained to criino? Against the pure and fair face of science, could any outrage be comparable to this system of national mendacity? One must be mad not to see that, in tho present • struggle, France, England, and Italy are the champious of that pure and high thing—science. For Germany scienco is but a prostitute. It is a curious phenomenon that; by dint of teaching in every possible wav Iheir pseudo-snperiorily in science, I he Germans havo come to believe, at last that they, havo real superiority. Tliey havo hypnotised themselves into that conviction. By tho same pedagogic and nutosuggestivo training they, havo planted alongside the Teutonic superiority tho dogma of the nuasi-divinity of their Emperor. But that was a more difficult task, and it was the result of mauy a fine and many a period of imprisonment. As i far as the Emperor himjself wag con-

corned, lie look very readily lo fho belief. Practice, and faith comes of itself.

Lacking Originality,

To really deseivo tho title of superhuman a man ought to exhibit truo genius and originality. But it is easy lo show that even in the preparati'on'and the conduct of this war tho Bodies aro completely lacking in originality. They havo merely employed superannuated principles whoso intricacy is a matter ot lepented observation. In particular tho imperhuman loader, the divine William, seems to utterly ignore history, elso he would Have known that atrocities, cruel novelties, have never coned a bravo people.. The Humans yielded onco, to the elephants of Pyrrhus, as did the English before n stifling gas; the second time the Romans slew the elephants and were victorious. To combat the Carthagenian lleet and at last beat it the Romans learned navigation. Ait for atrocities as n*means of intimidation, they are a superannuated proceeding, and of no ultimate advantage, iis history shows;'such atrocities us incendiary bombs and poisonous gases are not an effect of science," but on the contrary a reminiscence of the times of savagery. The Teaching of History. In tho celebrated manifesto of the 93 (German Intellectuals), winch above all mauilested cynical overwhelming conceit, this appalling ailirinatiou is maintained, namely, that tno development and maintenance of civilisation and scienco are bound up with. Prussian militarism. What! is, in this connection, tho teaching of history? Of course, «, people crushed and 'well-nigh destroyed by war will play no great part in> the world's history. But does it follow from that fact mat peoples more conquering, moro warlike, moro militarised, and better aimed, are superior peoples? The Unmans wero not more civilised than the Caithngouians, the Greeks, and the Asiatics whom they conquered. 'The Mansions conquered tha Chinese, more numerous and more civilised than themselves. Very often you see tho conquerors subjugated by the more civilised conquered. Home was by Athens, tho Frank by the Gallo-Roman, the Manchon by the Chinese. As regards military people properly so called, such as had war for their national industry, for instance the Assyrians and thO i Spartans, their rise was low, their existence brief, their ruin complete. The Spartans wore boors who havo left us not one man of genius. It is not even exactly known who Sparta. was., Tho Turks, though a warlike race "and for some long poriod victorious, will disappear, because they reject a superior civilisation. Not'less warlike wero the Mongols of Tamerlane, and the soldiers of Geng's-Kani.'. They have all disappeared, loaving no trace' on earth. The. Swedes, under G ustavus-Adolphus, and under Charles XII, lorded it over Europe at !i timo when Sweden was very backward in civilisation. Tho victories of those two men were injurious to their country by cxhanstiag its supply of men. Carthage. Venice, Holland, England, have proved that people can bo powerful, lasting, and reaching a high degree of civilisation without being militarised. The militarised Romans lmd no scientific terms in their language. Whatever referred to art, scienco, philosophy is expressed by them in Greek terms. Their sanguinary gamer in tho amphitheatre wpre n token of barbarism and of unparalleled contempt of humanity; their private manners were no less cruel; but after tho conquest there wero no more Romans; tho civilisation which they propagated was Grecian; Pome would havo been a. morass but for Greece and the Catholic Church. Music, Literature, and Science. No doubt Germany owes her political grandeur to her military institutions, to tho policy of tho Hohe.nzollerns, to the subordination of all ior'ces and all resources to the interests of the Stale. Some Germans, have striven hard, but in vain, to prove that tho achievements of the mind in Germany expanded by militarism, Thus Professor Bulo.w, of Fi'i-boug-eu-Brisgau, presents to us tho genius of Kant its bound up with German, militarism, by this argument: that the old philosopher—tho philosopher of everlasting peace—used to like military music, and would open. his window when the band passed. Surely there is no repb to such' arguments as-this- .But one thing, however,' is certain, that in matters'depending on thought Germany, has produced no great men comparable to those of old, since bor successes of 1870 hayo absorbed all her energies in military activity. To take but one instance, that country, onco tho very tcmplo of Music, has not produced a singlo great musician for tho last 50 years, no musician comparable to ' those given by Franco, Italy, and Russia in the samu period. And so it is in literature; not a singlo writer of genius has appeared in Germany sinco 1870. In the sciences, despite tho multiplication of laboratories and professional chairs, talents have risen, successful experimenters havo appeared, but no great brain, no nanio comparable to thoso of tho preceding period, such as Helrijsboltz and Gauss. Tho trutlAis that "exclusively military States cannot escape their fate, which is to perish like Spirta and Nineveh. Their exclusive culture of bruto force is to tho detriment of intellectual force. The former ought to servo only to protect and develop the latter; it ought to bo a. means and not an end. In States militarised to excess, as '.Gormnny to-day, it is the contrary that hnppons.